[Illustration:]
This half roasting and smoaking makes the meat keep much longer than it would do without it. The flesh was part of a Da qui which they found on the road; a lion had killed it during the night, and eat one leg of it.
At four o'clock P.M. departed from the Neaulico. At five, passed the ruins of Mangelli, where I formerly slept, and at six o'clock halted for the night at Manjalli Tabba Cotta, the ruins of a village so called. The wood during this day's march is in general small, and the road is much interrupted with dry bamboos. Plenty of water at the resting place. After dark took out the telescope in order to observe an immersion of Jupiter's first satellite—
H. M. S.
The satellite immerged by watch 14 10 35
Rate + from London 0 5 48
Too slow by eclipse at Kayee 0 0 5
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Mean time by watch 14 16 28
Time by Nautical Almanack 14 16 51
Equation 0 3 58
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Mean time at Greenwich 14 12 53
14 12 53
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Watch too fast 0 3 35
Longitude by three sets of sights taken next morning in order to find the apparent time at the place 13° 9' 45" W.
It is difficult to account for such a difference in the rate of going of the watch in the course of one month; but the excessive heat and the motion of riding may perhaps have contributed to it; for I think my observation of the immersion was correct.
May 17th.—Left Manjalli Tabba Cotta, and after a fatiguing march of twelve miles, reached Bray, a watering place. Endeavoured to take the meridional altitude of the sun, by the back observation with Troughton's pocket sextant; and after carefully examining his rise and fall, with the intervals betwixt each observation, I was convinced that it can be done with great accuracy, requiring only a steady hand and proper attention. This was a great relief to me; I had been plagued watching the passage of the fixed stars, and often fell asleep when they were in the meridian.
We left Bray at three o'clock, P.M. and carried with us as much water as we possibly could, intending to rest at Nillindingcorro till the moon rose; but there being no water, our guide continued our march to the river Nerico, which we reached at eight o'clock, all the people and asses very much fatigued. Face of the country during this day an open and level plain with bushes and Cibi trees, making the prospect rich, though not grand. Saw plenty of lions' excrement in the wood: they deposit it only in certain places, and like the cats, claw up the ground in order to cover it.
May 18th.—People employed all the morning in transporting the baggage and asses across the river; and as both men and asses were very much fatigued, I thought it best to halt on the east side of the river till the afternoon, as it would afford the soldiers an opportunity of washing their clothes.